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Martin St. Louis Must Step Up For New York Rangers In Round Two

By Connor Orchard

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With Mats Zuccarello going to be out indefinitely, Martin St. Louis needs to step up big in his absence in Round 2 against the Washington Capitals.

New York Rangers
New York Rangers /

New York Rangers

Coach Alain Vigneault announced on Monday, that due to Mats Zuccarello being ruled out indefinitely,
Martin St. Louis will replace him on the 1st line with Derick Brassard, and
Rick Nash. This should also mean that
James Sheppard, who was acquired by the New York Rangers from the
San Jose Sharks in exchange for a fourth round draft pick, will move up onto the 4th line with Tanner Glass and
Dominic Moore. This means that most likely Jesper Fast will move up onto the 3rd line with Kevin Hayes and
Carl Hagelin.

In Game 5 against the
Pittsburgh Penguins, Zuccarello took a slap shot to the side of the head from his own teammate Ryan McDonagh, which saw him leave the game with 3:58 remaining in the first period. The odds are that with a shot like that, you can imagine that Zuccarello has concussion, which will almost certainly mean he won’t play any games at all for the Rangers in the second round, when they face the Washington Capitals; who knocked the New York Islanders out of the first round, in a series that went to a Game 7.

St. Louis hasn’t been playing at his best as of late, and hasn’t seemed to play the same ever since he took a knee injury on March 15th in a 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers, where he had an awkward get-together with defenseman Dimitry Kulikov, which resulted in him being sidelined for two weeks. And considering St. Louis only has three goals in his last 21 games, it would certainly be a big boost to St. Louis if he could hit the ground running in Round 2. But even though the 39 year old veteran hasn’t been playing great hockey as of late, he can still bring something to the table for the Rangers, and I wouldn’t count him out of getting a goal or two in Round 2.

Martin St. Louis so far has one point in the playoffs this year, which was an assist on Kevin Hayes’ overtime winner in Game 4. And St. Louis has definitely had his fair share of playoff experience, and he is certainly expected to create opportunities when he is pushed up onto the 1st line with Brassard and Nash.

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St. Louis said “I’ve got to create more for my linemates, more for myself. My play with the puck has to be better. I have to help offensively to generate opportunities, and I don’t think I did enough of that in round one.”

Martin St. Louis definitely needs to find some more open space when he is on the ice against the Washington Capitals, as so far he hasn’t had many opportunities to do so. This will also be vital in the power plays for the Rangers, and St. Louis will surely want to unleash some heavy one-timers on net whenever he gets a chance.

Next: Kevin Klein's Fitting Return vs. Washington Capitals (Video)

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